THE Ministry of Health has announced that the country’s COVID-19 death toll has risen to 359 following the death of four persons and that 116 new cases were recorded for Saturday.

The latest victims are a 73-year-old man from Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice), who died on May 17 and three females: a 77-year-old of Region Six (East Berbice- Corentyne) who died on May 19 and a 78-year-old from Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara) and a 42-year old of Region Five, both of whom died on May 21.

The Health Ministry on Sunday reported that the victims died subsequent to being admitted with COVID-19 symptoms and while receiving care at one of its medical institutions.

Meanwhile, the ministry has recorded another 116 new infections for Saturday, May 22 from some 1,829 tests conducted. This takes the number of confirmed cases recorded in Guyana since the virus was first detected in March 2020, to 16,130.

The new cases were detected in Regions One (one case), Two (three cases), Three (13 cases), Four (62 cases), Five (five cases), Six (13 cases), Seven (one case), Eight (one case), Nine (nine cases) and 10 (six cases), covering every administrative region in the country.

There have also been some 35 recoveries recorded. Of the 116 new cases, 55 are males and 61 are females. Additionally, there are 19 persons in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the National Infectious Diseases Hospital at Liliendaal, Greater Georgetown.

Some 96 persons are in institutional isolation, 1911 are in home isolation and four are in institutional quarantine. There have been some 145,654 tests conducted to date.